National Youth Jazz Orchestra of the USA to play at the Apex

The Apex will host the first-ever European concert by Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra of the USA.

Formed just this year at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and comprising some of America’s most outstanding young jazz musicians aged 16 to 19, the band will showcase American music for big band from Basie and Ellington to today’s jazz greats.

NYO Jazz will play just two dates in the UK, The Apex on Tuesday, July 31, and Cadogan Hall, in London, the day after, before heading out to some of the most prestigious concert halls and music festivals in mainland Europe. 

The band will be joined for some classic numbers by one of the world’s preeminent jazz vocalists Dianne Reeves, who has been compared with Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald for her powerful voice and big personality.

She has received the Grammy Award for best jazz vocal performance for three consecutive recordings: a Grammy first in any vocal category. Featured in George Clooney’s Academy Award-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck, she also won a Grammy for the film’s soundtrack.

Musicians for America’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra are selected through a comprehensive audition process and a rigorous two-week training residency in New York with world-class jazz masters. 

In 2018, trumpet player Sean Jones – one of the field’s outstanding performer-composer-educators – will serve as soloist and bandleader for NYO Jazz’s inaugural year.

Jones sang and performed as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, switching from drums to trumpet after his first exposure to Miles Davis at the age of 10. 

Pictured above is Dianne Reeves who will be singing with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of the USA at the Apex

 

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